The current Regional Councils, Municipal Councils, Town Councils, etc. are established in the local government elections held in 2018. According to the relevant Act, the term of all those local government bodies should end on March 22 of the previous year (2021). But the term of those local government institutions was extended by one year by the then Rajapaksa administration.
Although that process can be interpreted as a violation of people’s sovereignty, it is in accordance with the applicable law of the country. However, that extended period is now coming to an end. As of now, the government has no way of postponing the local elections. Accordingly, the local government by-election must be held before March 23 of the coming year according to the existing law. Accordingly, it is mandatory to have started an official discussion about it by now.
The Election Commission has also officially said that the election should be held before March. But President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been repeatedly saying the need to halve the current number of local government posts from 8,000 to 4,000. The President has also raised the need to amend the existing local government election system for that. This implies that there is a preparation in the government not to use the mixed system that was held in the 2018 local government election this time.
According to the mixed system, 60% of the MPs were elected by the constituency system and the remaining 40% by the proportional system. It is said that if this system is successful, it will be replaced for other elections as well, but no definite decision has been taken till date. If that’s the case, it’s clear that the government wants to delay the local government election under the pretense of changing the way elections work. Although they said that the electoral system would be revised, the government has not even hinted at what kind of revisions it will be. The only proposal brought by the President is the need to cut the membership by half. Therefore, first of all, it is timely to consider how the number of member positions in local government bodies exceeded eight thousand
By the year 2012, the number of members of Sri Lanka’s local government bodies was 4,486. A committee was appointed in 2012 to propose the necessary amendments to the number of members as well as the local government election system and the current Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena held the position of chairman. According to the recommendations of the committee, it was proposed to increase the number of member positions to 6,000 and it was recommended to increase the number of divisions and to determine the boundaries for that.
The Yahapalana government that came to power in 2015 added more amendments to the Dinesh Gunawardena Committee proposals to increase the representation of women to 25% and to make the electoral system a single and proportional mixed system. Accordingly, it is clear that the parents of the current local government election system are Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is going to hastily amend the electoral system he brought four years ago, claiming it is more democratic. Therefore, there is no mistake in introducing this proposal of the President as extremely disgusting. Because the reason for increasing the number of local government member posts to the current level is because of the good governance government of Ranil Wickremesinghe who held the position of Prime Minister.
The people of this country have not forgotten that it was the Yahapalana government that revised the local government election system so that the local government election system can be conducted in a single and proportional mixed system and to give a permanent percentage of representation to women. A record number of candidates came forward for the 2018 local government elections as the number of local government body posts increased from 4,486 to 8,356. Numerically speaking, there are 57,252 candidates.
Ranil Wickramasinghe, who held the position of Prime Minister at that time, boasted a lot about increasing the number of member positions in the local government bodies which were under wraps by 3,870 and ensuring 25% female representation. At that time, he saw the increase in the number of members in local government bodies as a further expansion of democracy. Today he proposes to cut the number of member posts defined in this way by 50% to 4,000. If so, the voters of this country have the right to decide that this is his preparation to halve democracy in this country.
The President’s proposal to amend the local government election system raises serious doubts in us. Among the President’s proposed amendments, he strongly emphasizes only on the reduction of membership. He does not complain about whether the election will be held in the same proportional mixed system and whether the 25% female representation will be maintained in the same way. The other important point is that the president did not say on whose wish the 50% cut in membership would be. No one has a sufficient understanding of whether any recommendation has been submitted to the Election Commission, and if so, from whom.
Due to the increase in the number of members in the last local government election, it was difficult to even provide seats to the members of some local government bodies. Due to the voting in the new system, the number of members of the Colombo Municipal Council increased from 55 to 110 and the status of all local government bodies was the same. Because of that situation, many local government bodies had to demolish and enlarge their council halls. Trying to achieve women’s representation also created many problems.
If there was a need to make a change in the local government election system, the current president should have acted for it when he was the prime minister of the good governance government. Ranil, who was dumb after drinking the broth, felt the need to change the voting system after he assumed the vacant presidency due to the ousting of Gotabaya by the activists.
As proposed by the President, it is not possible to cut the member posts in half and hold the election in one go. For that, it is mandatory to amend the current Local Government Act. If the member posts are to be cut in half, then the size of the divisions has to be reduced, and the boundaries have to be determined to reduce the size of the divisions. It is no secret that this entire process takes approximately more than a year. It implies that the government led by the president wants to drag out the local government bodies that are going to be vacant in a few months, disregarding the people’s sovereignty, for more than one year.
The real story is that the government has no real desire to change the local government election system. Whichever election is held at this time, the ruling party will suffer a severe defeat. The only thing that will happen with such a result is to give a new life to the strugglers’ slogan ‘Government go home’. Therefore, it is better for the health of the government to postpone the election than to face the inevitable defeat of the election. The sane people recognize more easily than distinguishing the sound of the door from the sound of the drum that this effort is being made for that purpose and not for a change in the electoral system that will ensure the country’s democracy.
The other important point is that the government’s efforts are not limited to postponing the local government elections. At present, the government’s effort is to postpone the upcoming provincial council election as well as the general election as much as possible. That is why the government has said several times that it will go to a referendum if it is not possible to amend the electoral system. It says that changing the local government voting system is just the beginning of Ranil’s government’s election postponement process. In the future, the government will not hesitate to ‘apply the theory’ of revising the electoral system not only to provincial councils and general elections but also to presidential elections. It is no secret to those who know little about politics that Ranil has also received the inspiration of his uncle Junius Richard Jayawardene.
Postponing elections is not a new method for President Ranil Wickremesinghe. The provincial council elections that were supposed to be held in 2019 were also postponed by the then good governance government by presenting this kind of hair-raising argument. The 2019 provincial council election postponed under the guise of delimitation has not been held till date. The Provincial Council elections that were postponed by the good governance government then, the Podujana Peramuna government that came to power after that did not hold.
It is because of nothing else but because of the fear of holding an election and going before the people. In 2019, the good governance government postponed the election under the guise of delimitation and from 2020, the Podujana Peramuna government postponed the election under the guise of Corona virus and pointed the trigger at people’s sovereignty. Accordingly, it will be clear that power-hungry governments conduct elections only under a favorable background.
Aruna Laxman Fernando